Night of the Living Dead (1968)
| running time = 96 min. | country = USA | language = English | budget = $114,000 | gross revenue = $12,000,000 | preceded by = | followed by = Dawn of the Dead (1978) }} Night of the Living Dead is an American independent horror film directed by George A. Romero. Filmed in Evans City, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1967, it opened theatrically on October 1st, 1968 to limited theatrical release. Though initially deemed controversial for it's intense visuals, Night of the Living Dead went on to become a cult phenomenon that spawned five sequels, numerous remakes, a 30th Anniversary re-issue edition and inspired legions of film makers and writers earning Romero the sobriquet "Grandfather of the Zombies". Plot Siblings Johnny and Barbra drive out to a cemetery in rural Pennsylvania to place a flower wreath on their father's gravestone. Johnny dislikes the long drive and consistently complains to his sister about leaving flowers for a man he barely remembers. As they get out of the car, Barbra finds the grave and Johnny begins teasing her, making light of her apparent fear of cemeteries. In a ghoulish voice, he begins taunting, "They're coming to get you Bar-ba-ra". Ironically, Johnny's warning turns out to be true as an ashen-faced ghoul lumbers towards them and attacks Barbra. Johnny jumps on top of him and the two begin fighting, but the ghoul pushes Johnny away. His head smashes against the corner of a gravestone, killing him instantly. Barbra screams and gets into her car. Johnny has the keys however and Barbra can only get the vehicle to coast downhill. She begins to pull away as the ghoul begins pounding on the car window. He smashes the window with a rock and Barbra takes off. The momentum of the vehicle pulls it down an embankment where it smashes into a tree. The creature continues to chase her and Barbra gets out of the car and runs away. She eventually makes her way to a rural farmhouse, which appears to be empty. She begins to walk upstairs, but finds the rotting, half-eaten remains of one of the home's residents. Turning away in fear, she bolts for the front door. A dark-skinned man named Ben enters the house and locks the door behind him. Barbra is in a state of shock as Ben begins checking all of the doors and windows. Having escaped from several such creatures himself, he wants to make sure that the house is securely boarded up. He tries to talk to Barbra, but she is uncommunicative. He hears a noise from outside and sees that another zombie has joined the first and they begin destroying Ben's car. Ben runs out the front with a tire iron and beats the second zombie down, but he doesn't know how many more may come creeping out of the woodwork. A third zombie appears and while Ben turns his sights on him, several more manage to get inside the house. He runs back inside and stabs two more in the face with his tire iron then locks the front door. Once they determine that there is nobody else in the house, Ben begins rummaging through the different rooms looking for materials. Barbra takes up a steak knife and holds it close to her chest. She remains silent as Ben tries to give her instruction. He stresses the need for boarding up the doors and windows. He begins foraging for any useful material he can find: planks, lumber, furniture, fire wood, nails, etc. He pulls down a closet door with his jack handle and nails it up against the front windows as a barrier. Barbra remains silent. Once he feels that all of the doors and windows leading outside are safely secured, he takes a moment to rest. Ben begins telling Barbra about his own experiences with the ghouls before arriving at the house. He mentions how he heard the news of the outbreak in Cambria and came across a horde of the creatures outside of Beekman's diner. He goes on to say that he witnessed a group of them chasing a gasoline truck down the interstate, forcing it off the road into a guard rail. The impact caused the truck to burst into flames and the driver was trapped inside. The vehicle was quickly engulfed by fire, but Ben saw how the creatures reacted and discovered that they greatly feared fire. He continued driving his own vehicle until it ran out of gas right out in front of the house. After hearing his story, Barbara begins coming out of her shell. She begins talking about Johnny and her experience in the cemetery, but she grows increasingly erratic and quickly gets to the point of hysteria. She tries to leave the house to search for her brother, but Ben restrains her. She slaps him across the face and he responds in kind to get her to calm down. Ben finds an old radio and turns it on. The sound of an emergency radio broadcast drones on throughout the room as he continues to disable pieces of furniture to forge makeshift weaponry. He turns two table legs into torches and douses a padded chair with fuel. He pries open the front door just as more and more zombies come lumbering up to the house. He sets the chair on fire and kicks it down the porch. The zombies recoil as the flames spread before them. Ben re-secures the door and continues searching the house for more wood. While rummaging through closets and dressers, he comes upon a Winchester .32-30 and a half a box of ammunition. He shows the gun to Barbra, who has once again fallen silent, and tries to reassure her. He tells her that the first floor of the house is fairly secure now and that they have food, weapons and a radio. He says that he is going upstairs to fortify the other rooms, but she should be all right. Ben goes upstairs and begins working on securing the windows, leaving Barbra on the couch listening to the radio. She hears the announcer describe the situation and how it is affecting both the Midwestern and eastern seaboard of the United States. They have determined that the assailants are actually the reanimated dead who, having returned to some semblance of life, now crave human flesh. Barbra goes into another fit of hysterics and tries to leave the house. Ben hears her and races downstairs. As he tries to calm her down, they learn that five more people are in the house as well. The five other survivors had been hiding inside a basement that was inaccessible earlier. The group consists of a gas station attendant named Tom, his girlfriend Judy, and older man named Harry Cooper, his wife Helen and his daughter Karen. Ben lashes out at Harry for not coming up earlier, but Harry tells him that with all the racket he was making, he couldn't be sure if the house had been raided by monsters or not. Ben doesn't buy his excuse, but Harry insists that the best place to keep safe is in the cellar. Ben thinks this is a bad idea, as it restricts their ability to escape. Harry however, lacks confidence that Ben's efforts to board the windows will be as effective as they would like. Tom begins to see that Ben's idea makes more sense than staying in the basement. More zombies appear and they begin to surround the house. They smash at the glass windows and stretch their hands between the shards of broken glass and the wooden boards. Ben and Tom fight back against them and Ben blasts one backward with a shot from his rifle. He is shocked however to discover that the monster is struggling to get back up even though it has a hole through its chest. Ben fires two more shots, but it is the shot to the head that puts the zombie down for good. As things outside momentarily settles down, Ben turns to continue his feud with Harry Cooper. Harry thinks that Ben is crazy for choosing to stay upstairs and refuses to be a part of it. He tells him that he has a wife and a sick child down in the cellar and insists that it is the safest place for her. Ben quickly tires of Harry's blustering and tells him to go to the cellar if that is what he feels is best. He punctuates his command by saying, "You can be boss down there. I'm boss up here". Harry returns to the cellar in a huff just as Tom's girlfriend Judy comes upstairs. Like Barbra, she is in a state of total terror and speaks very little. Harry goes downstairs and gives his wife Helen an update on their situation. Helen has her ill child Karen lying on a table. When Harry tells her that they have a radio upstairs, Helen tells him that they need to be with the others rather than remain sealed off downstairs. The two bicker with one another, but ultimately they go upstairs. Judy comes back down to keep an eye on Karen. Tom and Ben find a television set and set it up in the living room. They tune in to an emergency news broadcast that provides more information on the nature of the mass murders taking place across the country. The newscaster reveals that the murders are being committed by the unburied dead who consume the remains of those they attack. Victims whose bodies are even partially intact rise from the dead as flesh-eating ghouls. The newscaster goes on to announce a list of rescue stations being prepared by the military and the Civil Defense Command. The broadcast cuts to an interview with a team of scientists who theorize about the origins of this phenomenon. They postulate that a space probe on a return trip from Venus carried with it radioactive microbes, the fallout of which, might have been responsible for mutating the bodies of the recently deceased. After listening to the broadcast, the group decides to take inventory of the supplies available to them. Ben mentions that there is a rundown pick-up truck in the back, but it needs gas. Tom mentions that there is a gas pump in a nearby shed, but the door is locked. Among the materials found in the cellar is a key ring and stores of kerosene. Once they find the key that opens the gas pump, Tom instructs Harry to use the kerosene to make Molotov cocktails to keep the ghouls at bay so that Ben and Tom can get to the gas pump. Harry fills up several jars with kerosene and goes upstairs. He lights each one on fire and begins hurling them out the windows. The zombies recoil in fear as the flames burst across the ground. One zombie is too close to the falling Molotovs and catches on fire. Ben un-pries the front door and runs outside with a lit torch. Tom runs behind him and makes for the pick-up. At the last moment, Judy decides to join them. Tom starts the truck and Ben hops into the back. There is only enough gas to bring them to the fueling shed on the back end of the property. Tom tries to open the lock on the pump, but the key doesn't work. Ben sets his torch on the ground and uses the Winchester to blow the lock away. Tom pulls the dispenser out, but gasoline begins pouring all over the ground and across the side of the truck. It gets too close to Ben's torch and a trail of fire erupts. Tom gets into the truck and begins to drive off. Ben tries to stop him, warning him that the truck is now on fire. By the time they get back to the house, the vehicle is almost entirely engulfed in flames. Tom throws it into park and opens the door. He tries to help Judy out, but her shirt is stuck. The flames finally take their toll and the truck explodes, killing both of them. Ben fights his way past a throng of ghouls and makes his way to the front porch of the farmhouse. He bangs on the door, yelling for Harry to let him in, but Harry is too consumed with fear to respond. Ben finally breaks the door down on his own and both men work feverishly to nail the planks back up before the zombies can descend upon them. Afterward, Ben loses all of his patience and begins brutally punching Harry in the face. After Harry falls to the floor, Ben lets up, threatening to leave him for the zombies. As it nears 3:00 am, Helen sits by the television awaiting the next news update. Barbra begins to rattle on about her brother, repeating the fact that he had the keys to the car. Ben asks the Coopers about their daughter's health. They tell him that Karen was bitten when the monsters first attacked their car. Ben grows even more concerned, pointing out that the ghouls might be spreading communicable diseases. They hear a noise from outside and go to the window. As they look out, they see several zombies dining on the innards of the dead Tom and Judy. They return to the television set as the newscaster broadcasts an update on the situation. Sheriff Conan W. McClelland of Butler County provides tips on how to destroy the ghouls. As they listen to the broadcast, the lights go out and everyone stands at attention. The zombies begin pounding away at the front doors and windows. Ben goes to brace them, but to do, he must first prop his rifle. As soon as he lets it fall to the floor, Harry rushes over and scoops it up. He levels it at Ben and begins backing up towards the cellar. Ben leaps at Harry, pulling the gun away from him. He then cocks it and fires a shot into the older man's shoulder. Harry stumbles backward and shambles down into the cellar. He collapses next to the table where his daughter is lying still. Helen follows her husband downstairs, but when she gets there she sees Karen, now a zombie, chewing on sinew from her dead father’s shoulder. Helen falls backward onto the floor in shock. Karen takes a trowel off the wall and stabs her mother repeatedly with it until she is dead. Back upstairs, the zombies make their way through the front door. The one in the front is the reanimated Johnny, who grabs his sister by her coat and drags her outside. She disappears into the swarming mass of zombies. The rest of the zombies pour into the house and begin attacking Ben. Kathy Cooper comes upstairs and tries to bite him, but Ben pushes her away and retreats into the cellar. He barricades the door and remains inside while the zombies tear apart the rest of the house. An undead Harry Cooper begins to rise and Ben is forced to shoot him again – this time in the head. He also makes sure to take care of Helen's body before it too begins to rise. While Ben is dealing with Harry, zombies break through the front door and drag Barbra away. Come the dawn, Sheriff McClelland and his posse are sweeping through Parkville. His deputies, as well as numerous volunteers begin picking off zombies with their rifles and then burning the bodies upon a huge pyre. One of the deputies spots Ben peering out of the window of the house. Mistaking him for a zombie, McClelland orders the man to open fire. Ben is shot in the forehead and falls over dead. Posse members gather his body and throw it onto the fire. Cast Production The evolution of what would become Night of the Living Dead began shortly after Romero abandoned doing industrial films in search of something meatier he could sink his teeth into. Along with his friends John Russo and Russell Streiner, he began developing the concepts that would become Night of the Living Dead. Romero was inspired by the works of novelsit Richard Matheson, specifically, his 1954 novel I am Legend, which revolved around one man's struggle to survive in a dystopic world overrun by vampire-like infected ghouls. Romero admitted to drawing the bulk of his ideas from the novel, but wanted to present an environment that showed the early stages of an undead apocalypse. To distinguish his story from Matheson's work, Romero opted to replace the vampire antagonists with zombies (or ghouls as Romero referred to them). Collaborating with Russo and Streiner, he began putting together a script entitled Night of the Flesh Eaters. He pitched the film project to Hardman Associates, Inc. in Pittsburgh. President Karl Hardman and vice-president Marilyn Eastman joined with Romero's group to form the independent Image Ten Productions. The initial budget was $6,000 with the ten members of the production company investing $600 each for a share of the profits. When it was found that another $6,000 was required another ten investors were found but this was also soon found to be inadequate. Image Ten eventually raised approximately $114,000 for the budget. Homepage of the Dead Filming on Night of the Flesh Eaters began in June of 1967. To limit production costs, Image Ten used rural Evans City, just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to shoot their film. When it came time to find a distributor for the film, there were few companies willing to deal with the finished project as-is. All of them made requests for Romero to delete particularly visceral scenes from the movie, something Romero was unwilling to do. Finally, they submitted the film to the Walter Reade Organization, who agreed to distribute the film provided that Image Ten changed the title from Night of the Flesh Eaters to Night of the Living Dead. As it turned out, Walter Reade neglected to place a copyright indication on the prints even though Image Ten displayed the copyright notice on the title frames of the film when it was still called Night of the Flesh Eaters. Walter Reade removed the copyright statement under the new title and as such, Image Ten did not gain copyright ownership over their intellectual property. Because of this oversight, whether deliberate or accidental, Night of the Living Dead passed into the public domain. Because of the public domain status, the film is sold on home video by many distributors. As of 2006, the IMDB lists 23 copies of Night of the Living Dead retailing on DVD and nineteen on VHS. The original film is available to view or download free on Internet sites such as the Night of the Living Dead site. (Retrieved August 9, 2011). As of October 31, 2010, it is the Internet Archive's second most downloaded film, with 708,608 downloads. Homepage of the Dead; The Filming... Casting Most of the casting for the film was comprised of the Image Ten staff with Karl Hardman playing the role of Harry Cooper and Marilyn Eastman playing his wife Helen. Russell Streiner had the brief, but memorable role of Johnny, while John Russo donned the face makeup of one of the zombie extras. To fill out the rest of the roles, George Romero cast a stage actor named Duane L. Jones as the male lead Ben. The character was originally written as an uneducated truck driver, but Jones was reticent about playing a part, which he felt was demeaning, so Romero altered the script to match Jones' sensibilities. Karl Hardman's eleven-year-old daughter Kyra Schon played the part of his character's daughter, Karen Cooper. The role of Tom was given to a local man named Keith Wayne and the part of Judy was played by Karl and Marilyn's receptionist Judith Ridley. Zombies and posse members were made up from local extras as well as people that Romero knew from his commercial film days. Setting The film was shot in Evans City, Pennsylvania, which is about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. However, the actual setting of the film must take place in another part of the state. In the beginning of the movie, Johnny indicates that it is a three hour drive from Pittsburgh to their father's cemetery. He quotes the distance as being more than 200 miles from home, but he may have been exaggerating. One of his lines, "We're gonna have to either move mother to Parkville, or move the grave to Pittsburgh", implies that the film takes place in Parkville. Parkville is a town in York County, Pennsylvania. A wall calendar inside the kitchen of the home indicates that the film takes place in December of 1967. However, a comment that Johnny makes earlier in the film establishes the Daylight Savings Time changeover, which would place the time of year closer to late October. It is also established that the events in the film take place in the early evening on a Sunday. The entire movie takes place over the course of a single evening. Updated versions Night of the Living Dead went through several updates as well as remakes over the years. In the mid 1980s, a process was developed, which could colorize older films that were originally shot in black and white. Hal Roach Studios and Legend Films produced the first colorized version of Night of the Living Dead in 1986, presenting the ghouls with greenish-grey skin. More than a decade later in 1997, Anchor Bay Entertainment produced another colorized version of Night of the Living Dead, this time giving the zombies a more sickly, gray pallor. Both of the colorized versions of the movie have been released on home video. In 1999, co-writer John A. Russo released a modified version called Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition. He filmed additional scenes and recorded a revised soundtrack composed by Scott Vladimir Licina (the original film score was composed of stock library audio samples). Additional cast members were brought in to film certain roles and even Bill Hinzman, who played the graveyard zombie in he original release, reprised his role for the anniversary edition. The new footage was inserted into the film at the expense of original scenes which had been deleted. The 30th Anniversary version is almost universally reviled by both critics and fans of the original Night of the Living Dead, many of whom feel that the movie is Romero's signature masterpiece work and should never have been altered. Notes & Trivia * The original working title of the film was Night of the Flesh Eaters, but the Walter Reade Organization forced Romero to change the title to Night of the Living Dead because it bore a strong similarity to the 1964 Jack Curtis film The Flesh Eaters. Ironically, Bill Hinzman, who played the cemetery zombie in Night of the Living Dead went on to write, direct and star in the 1988 movie FleshEater. * One of the taglines for this movie is, "They keep coming back in a bloodthirsty lust for human flesh!" * The makeup artists used Bosco Chocolate Syrup for their fake blood mixture. * Robert Kirkman, author of the critically-acclaimed comic book series The Walking Dead named his character Duane Jones after actor Duane L. Jones. * George Romero created the dead body that Barbra finds at the top of the staircase. He constructed it out of a Rovell skull model kit and used ping pong balls for the eyes. The rest of the features were made up with clay and fake blood. Night of the Living Dead interactive script * False blooper: After Ben kills the first ghoul that tried to attack Barbra inside the house, the camera slowly zooms in on it's face and the actor's eyes can be seen moving slightly. This may be incorrectly identified as a blooper, but per the original shooting script, the ghoul was supposed to be suffering spasmic death twitches before Ben drags it away. * The title of the film was lampooned in the Halloween episode of the 2008 iteration of Knight Rider entitled "Knight of the Living Dead". Body Count See also * Night of the Living Dead * Night of the Living Dead characters * Night of the Living Dead cast & crew * Night of the Living Dead image gallery * Night of the Living Dead image category * Night of the Living Dead miscellaneous External Links * * * Night of the Living Dead at Wikipedia * Night of the Living Dead at TCM Underground * Night of the Living Dead at House of Horrors * Night of the Living Dead at The Flesh Farm * Night of the Living Dead at Rotten Tomatoes * Night of the Living Dead at the Internet Archive * Night of the Living Dead at TCM Movie Database * Night of the Living Dead Blog and Information * Night of the Living Dead at Homepage of the Dead References Category:1968 films Category:Black and white films Category:1st installments Category:Films with plot summaries Category:Image Ten Productions Category:Laurel Group Category:Market Square Productions Category:Legend Films Category:Off Color Films Category:Night of the Living Dead films Category:Al Croft